Cannons in the Canon 3: Neville, Shakespeare, and Hamlet

Topic: Cannons in the Canon 3: Neville, Shakespeare, and Hamlet

1. Verified Sourced Facts

• No verified sourced facts have been isolated in this packet yet; current value is mainly as a source map or lead packet.

2. Ken Feinstein Twitter and Blog Information

• A Ken Feinstein blog post dated 26 Nov. 2018 states:

“a textual crux in Hamlet (1.1), where Marcellus describes war preparations.”

• The same post states that the passage contains:

“either ‘daily cost’ (First Quarto) or ‘daily cast’ (First Folio) regarding ‘brazen cannon.’”

• The same post states:

“Feinstein supports the ‘cast’ reading by citing a November 19, 1599 letter from Henry Neville to Robert Cecil.”

• The same post quotes Neville’s letter as describing:

“the casting of 50 or 60 Pieces”

• The same post adds:

“30 are already cast and tried.”

• The same post adds that the same letter says the king:

“appointed great Store of Arms to be bought in sundry Towns.”

• The same post states:

“‘Cast’ as meaning ‘manufacture artillery’ was uncommon”

• A 2026-04-21 web audit found public text witnesses supporting the daily cast of brazen cannon reading in edited Hamlet texts. Older variorum material also preserves the note that quartos read cost while later text gives cast. These witnesses support the textual crux, but not the Neville-letter comparison.

• A follow-up local check confirmed that the Neville letter is directly present in the project corpus: Neville Letters Corpus v8, letter_038, dated 1599-11-19, from Paris to Robert Cecil, with source filename Neville_Letter_1599-11-29_NS.txt. The XML metadata gives date_ns="1599-11-19" and the local Winwood transcript begins Paris 19th Nov. 1599. O. S.

• The local Winwood transcript gives the artillery passage directly:

“This King, whatsoever his meaning is, hath been very carefull of late to furnish himself of ordinance, and hath taken order for the casting of 50 or 60 peeces here in the arfenal, whereof 30 are already cast and tryed; he hath also appoynted great stoare of armes to be bought in fundry townes ...”

3. Citations

• Feinstein, Ken. “Cannons in the Canon 3: Neville, Shakespeare, and Hamlet.” kenfeinstein.blogspot.com, 26 Nov. 2018, https://kenfeinstein.blogspot.com/2018/11/cannons-in-canon-3-neville-shakespeare.html. Local preservation: blog_cannons3_hamlet_2018-11-26.md.
• Neville, Henry, to Robert Cecil, Paris, 19 Nov. 1599 O.S. Neville Letters Corpus v8, letter_038, date_ns="1599-11-19", source filename Neville_Letter_1599-11-29_NS.txt. XML witness: Neville_Letters_Corpus_v8.xml. Enriched XML witness: Neville_Letters_Corpus_v8_Enriched.xml. Winwood transcript: Neville_Letter_1599-11-29_NS.txt.
• Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 1. Shakespeare Navigators public text and notes, https://www.shakespeare-navigators.com/hamlet/Hamlet_Act_1_Scene_1.html.
• Shakespeare, William. The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare, variorum witness noting daily cast and quarto cost. Wikimedia Commons PDF, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/The_plays_and_poems_of_William_Shakspeare_%28IA_playspoemsofwill07shakiala%29.pdf.
• mayfield_manor_and_ironworks.md, related ironworks packet.

4. Notes on Access

• This is a lead packet, not a primary-source packet.
• This packet preserves a Ken Feinstein blog post.
• The locally preserved Blogger export records no embedded images for this post.
• The quoted Neville letter phrases are now anchored in the local Neville letters XML and Winwood transcript, not only in the blog post.
• A dedicated Hamlet play packet would be the right place for direct Folger-based act/scene quotation if that comparison is upgraded later.
• Web audit result: the Neville-letter side is now hardened locally. Remaining work is the Hamlet textual-witness table and EEBO rarity check for the artillery sense of cast.